Absolute Zero
by foreversnevers
Summary: Anna loved two people, and we all know how love triangles do nothing but destroy. xElsanna


1. Anna

She was like a ghost. Cold, pale, captivating, and always out of reach. I hardly ever saw her; she was avoiding me again. I wasn't sure why she was doing it or why I was so surprised. She had abandoned me for years before, and I should've anticipated for the pattern to repeat.

Although I knew I had the right to hate her for hurting me again, I couldn't force myself to turn against her. I missed her too much. More than I should.

I missed her flowing blonde hair that almost looked white from afar. I missed her icy azure eyes. I missed how she was so distant to everyone but me. I missed the way she talked, so proper and calm. I missed her blue dresses.

I missed her, I missed her, I missed her.

She was playing me, I constantly reminded myself. She got to watch me, see me whenever she desired, but it wasn't a mutual luxury. She hovered in the edge of my life, forever a shadow I couldn't confront.

She knew that I loved her, and I guess I knew that she loved me, too. Our love was something we never spoke of, but it was eternal—we both knew that.

She had only kissed me once before; it was on the cheek. I had been frozen solid at the time and hadn't felt any of it. She had thought I was dead. She had been the one to kill me.

It was an accident, many told me.

She froze me in the heart and even though she had thawed me out, I still got cold spots sometimes. I wondered if that was how she felt all of the time.

"Anna?" Kristoff asked with a small frown. "You okay?"

I swallowed thickly. "Yeah. I was just thinking."

"About what?"

I looked at him for a few seconds, deliberating whether or not to tell him the truth. He knew I had been having a rough time with Elsa recently and that it was negatively effecting me, but he didn't know what it was all about. But his face was hard, his eyes angry as he questioned me. Kristoff was smart enough to know that whatever I was thinking of was making me sad, and he didn't like that.

"Nothing," I lied. "It's stupid."

"You're acting weird," he accused. Kristoff paused, a thought crossing his mind. "Are you having second thoughts about the engagement?"

"No!' I cried, maybe a bit too quickly. "Never. You know I love you, Kristoff, my ice gatherer."

And it was true, I did love him. I loved him a lot, but not as much as I loved her.

A sloppy grin exploded across his face instantly. I once again thought of how easy it was for me to please him. "I love you, too, Anna."

Kristoff kissed me on the lips, the smooch lasting a few seconds longer than I was comfortable with.

Feeling my unease, my fiancé pulled away. "What is it?"

"I'm cold," I complained, and it wasn't a total lie. I could tell that Kristoff didn't believe me, though, and so I faked a shiver.

He looked at me for a few seconds but eventually rolled his eyes and exited the sleigh. Sven and I both looked at him in confusion.

"Where are you going?" I asked, throwing a look towards the dark forest. "It's freezing out there! And there's probably wolves or something prowling nearby!"

"We need a fire," he explained, throwing me a large bag of equipment. "You said you were cold, right?"

Not wanting to blow my cover, I nodded.

He ordered softly, "You set up camp while I gather wood."

I sighed. "Alright, but hurry back."

"Okay," Kristoff replied, throwing me a grin before he ran into the woods, therefore cutting him off from my watchful eye.

Kristoff was a mountain man. He knew his way around the forest, and he knew what to do when danger arose, but I still worried about him. Your head can tell you one thing and your heart another.

I groaned quietly as I got out of the sleigh. Opening up the bag Kristoff had handed me, I found three blankets, a hatchet, and rope.

I was supposed to set up camp with _this_? The ground was covered in ice and snow! Hail was falling from the sky at a steady rate, and I had to wonder if Elsa was the culprit of the storm.

This hardly seemed likely, though. After I had thawed out, Elsa seemed to get a good grip on her powers. She wasn't perfect, of course. Sometimes a maid would do something uncalled for, and Elsa would accidentally freeze half of the hallway. But Elsa would always remain calm and clean up her messes.

Until recently had my sister started to cause problems again. It began with little things, like how she requested that her dinner be brought to her room instead of dining down with me, but the small stuff quickly grew. She soon shut me out completely, as she did when we were children.

I hardly ever saw her, she was always in meetings or "out." Out doing what, I didn't know. All I knew was that she was losing control. Sometimes I would go into her bedroom when she wasn't there to discover it completely frozen solid.

I didn't understand it—any of it. She was so happy and glad to be with me one day, and then ignoring me another.

And Elsa was cold now. Maybe not directly towards me—since I never saw or talked to her, but I would hear the servants gossiping about her sometimes, talking about how she said this or did that and how inappropriate that was. There was even this one rumor that she froze a guard's hand solid once. They said she was unstable.

It didn't make sense to me that Elsa would be creating this particular storm, though. She knew I was heading up into the mountains with Kristoff. You'd think she would have at least tried to ease up—for me at least.

For me.

I closed my eyes, wondering if Elsa even cared about me anymore. When we were children, she had a reason to shut me out—she didn't want me to get hurt. So what was her reasoning now? What had I done that was so morbid?

A part of me hated how much I was utterly obsessed with my sister. I hated that I loved her in a more than sisterly manner, and I hated that she didn't return my affections.

Why was I even wasting my time thinking about her? Kristoff loved me; we were getting married. He made me happy. He made things simple. Whereas Elsa—all she ever did was screw up my life.

And yet …I still loved her. I still thought about her every second of every day. When I woke up in Kristoff's arms in the morning, I thought about her. And I always wondered if she thought about me.

The sick truth was that I didn't want the simple love that Kristoff offered. I wanted a die-for-you, unstoppable, destructive love.

I wanted Elsa. I wanted her so bad, and I knew how wrong it was. I knew we were sisters, and I knew she had killed me, and I knew we were both female, but it didn't matter. I still felt things for her. Wrong things that made me feel like a freak.

Somehow, I preferred my sister over Kristoff. Not only as a lover, but as a friend, too. Elsa was hard on me—she challenged me to set goals.

And then there was Kristoff. He never got mad at me, he never shut me out … he was always there. Constant. Warm. But it was eerie. It was almost like Kristoff worshipped me, like his whole world revolved around me. I knew to some women that might seem appealing, but to me, I only felt trapped.

Heavy footfalls coming from behind alerted me that Kristoff was back. I quickly erased my thoughts of self-doubt and allowed for a smile to enter upon my face.

"Kristoff!" I cried happily, turning to face him.

He, in return, gave me a small grin, but didn't look joyful. I noted that he was empty handed— had he run in to trouble and forgotten about the wood?

Seeing my questioning look, he responded, "The wood's too wet, Anna. I'm …" Kristoff grimaced, "sorry, but I think we're going to need to head back to the castle. I know you wanted a romantic get-away, but it's way too cold."

I inhaled sharply. We were returning to the castle? The only reason I had wanted to come out here in the first place was to forget about the queen that resided inside the castle.

"We've been out in colder weather," I reminded him. "Remember last year?"

I, of course, was referring to Elsa's coronation. My sister had lost control of her powers and froze the entire kingdom of Arendelle.

Good stuff.

He looked doubtful. "I don't want you to get frostbite."

"I'll huddle up!" I looked around at our non-existent campsite. Picking up one of the blankets, I instantly settled it around my shoulders and was overwhelmed by a sense of itchiness. "What's this made of?"

Kristoff laughed. "Wool."

I made a face in response. "It's itchy."

"Better than freezing to death."

"Not by much."

He rolled his eyes. "Are you sure you want to stay? It won't be comfortable or fun."

"I'm always having fun when I'm with you." It wasn't too far from the truth. I did usually have fun with him.

"Well," Kristoff drawled. "What do you want to do?"

"Let's find shelter."

"Shelter?"

"Yeah, like a cave or something."

He laughed. "Are you serious? We'll turn blue before we find one."

"That's all I've got," I said.

Kristoff contemplated this. "We could try to head up to Elsa's ice castle. We're pretty close."

"Really? We made it that far up?"

"We've been up here for a week, Anna. Give me some credit."

I giggled. It had really been a week? I hadn't even noticed.

"So what do you—?"

Kristoff was interrupted by Sven walked up beside him and nudging him.

Kristoff slapped him away playfully. "Not now."

Sven banged into him again and began to screech in that confusing language only he and Kristoff understood.

Suddenly, my husband-to-be's face contorted in horror. "They're what?"

I stood up, concerned. "What's going on?"

Kristoff began to pack everything up in a superhuman pace. He threw things in the sleigh carelessly, which was _very_ unlike him. He love his sleigh more than life and wouldn't even risk partial damage to it.

"Kristoff! What's wrong? Please—"

He didn't answer my question and instead grabbed me by my forearm and pushed me in the sleigh.

"Hey!" I rubbed my arm. "That hurt."

"Sorry." He sounded slightly sincere. Kristoff talked to me as he hooked Sven up to the sleigh. "Something's coming."

"What? What's coming?"

"I don't know. Sven didn't say."

"Where are we going?"

"I don't know," he replied, climbing in the sleigh. "All I know is we have to get out of here."

I gulped. "So it's real serious?"

"As serious as is can get, I guess." Kristoff tightened the reigns and ordered, "Go!"

Sven took off so fast, I considered it nearly impossible that I didn't fall over my side of the sleigh.

We entered a clearing. And though I knew something terrible was happening, and I couldn't feel my toes, I looked up, and I saw the moon. It was in a crescent shape tonight, and it looked so lovely.

Kristoff glanced behind us several times before he realized we were safe. He visibly relaxed. "Okay, I think we're going to be fine."

I sighed in relief. "You really worried me for a second there. I thought—"

"I know."

A moment passed before Kristoff called out to his reindeer, "It's okay, Sven. We're fine now."

He slowed, almost gratefully. I could hear his heavy pants all the way in the back of the sleigh. It was a terrible thing to think, but I was almost glad he was tired. That had to mean we were far away from whatever endangered us.

And then, almost ironically, an arrow suddenly shot across the clearing and pierced Sven's skin.

"Sven!" Kristoff screamed.

The reindeer roared in pain, bucking at the ground.

Another arrow hit him.

The sleigh was about to fall over with the force Sven was shaking it with. I didn't want to leave Kristoff, but I didn't want to get crushed either.

I jumped from the sleigh and ran.

It was a bad thing to do. Probably. I had actually had several nightmares about abandoning Kristoff and Sven. Mainly Kristoff, but still.

And now here I was, doing exactly what I feared most.

He was a mountain man, I told myself. He'll be _fine_. And he'll forgive me for leaving him, because he always does. This won't be a big deal. We'll be fine.

But Sven?

I gulped.

As terrible as it was, I knew he wasn't going to make it back down to Arendelle. We were so far from civilization, and no one could help him out here.

I began to cry as trees mercilessly scratched at my cheeks. I could hardly see where I was going. Despite it being pitch black, it was also snowing unbelievably hard.

Still, I ran. I ran like crazy. I didn't even know what I was running to or running for, as I knew better than anyone that there was no one out here. There was no place I could go. Eventually, I would either be found and shot like Sven or freeze to death.

I found myself on a hill and desperately trying to shuffle through the steep snow without falling and snapping my neck.

Once I reached the bottom of the slope, I began to hear them. Their footsteps were heavy but they were quick. Quicker than me.

Risking a look back, I saw that there were three of them. They were wearing black.

I tried to increase my pace, but that made me careless. Soon, I fell. I didn't hit my head or anything, and I got right back up, but my fall had cost me time. The men were almost upon me.

My breathing was labored by then. Either from the panic, adrenaline, or my recent lack of exercise.

They were so fast. _How_ were they so fast? I couldn't outrun them.

Something hit me from behind.


End file.
